GREAT book! I bought this solely on the reviews below and was skeptical, but the price was right and I cannot get it anywhere else due to my location. I must say I am thrilled with it. It immediately starts showing you the principles of design, how small changes can make huge differences, and has really helped me in layout for a local newsletter I do.I cannot recommend it enough.

This book is at least as important as John Nesbitt's "Megatrends" was in the 1980's. If one gains nothing more than the enhanced perspective of our future, it will be well worth the time spent reading. The style of writing is unique and the information crammed into the book will warrant reading it for a second or third time. "Forewarned is forearmed."

This book, along with the CISSP Exam Prep Guide by Kurtz and Vines, provided me a great deal of insight into the 10 domains of computer security and it was instrumental in assisting me to pass the CISSP exam on the first try. No book alone can inform a candidate to the level of familiarity with this topic needed to pass this very broadly scoped exam. But, this book helped me put my 20+ years of IS experience into perspective from the point of view of the ten domains of computer security. It helped provide the context and framework for organizing and thinking about the issues, helped to sort-out and standardize my terminology, informed me in some areas where I was weak and provided pointers to additional resources to supplement my understanding. This book was helpful in spite of considerable shortcomings, including errors of fact, errors in logic, and an appalling number of typographical errors that must reflect a rush to publish and a lack of interest in quality control. Errors of fact included erroneous definitions of important terms, e.g., MTTR - improperly defined as the mean time between repairs rather than the mean time to repair. Some sample questions at the chapter ends included duplicate answers, and offered wrong answers as correct ones. While this occurred infrequently, it shouldn't happen at all. Without prior knowledge, the reader wouldn't know what was true and what was in error. The book was laced with exasperatingly trite examples that distracted from the theme development in the chapters. Moreover, many of the book's sections were far too wordy and could have been distilled or provided as an appendix for those who are interested in the tutorial material, e.g., over 150 pages on the telecom and security domain alone. The sample test S/W included informative questions, but was unwieldy, error-filled and did not permit the user to suspend the exercise until later nor did it provide for printing the Q&A's in any useful way. All in all I believe the book was a considerable help to me. If you can get by the multiplicity of errors and deal with the frustrating sample test software, it could be a helpful tool in preparing for the CISSP exam.

I like it because it is only around 400 pages. It does not blindly copy-and-paste information you can find on the web sites. The introduction chapter summarize the paradigm mismatch of ORM and how hibernate is trying to solve, which is also an interesting start.